What is REVTalks?

The Funnelholic is a media sponsor for a new, upcoming event for marketers: REVTalks in San Francisco on January 27th, 2014. 36 great speakers. (Yes, 36). What we liked was the number of practitioners that are speaking. For me personally, practitioners means great content. (If you have ever heard Meagan Eisenberg you will know what I am talking about. She is always doing some forward-looking marketing) These are the people that have to do it not just talk about it. I asked Debbie Qaqish from Pedowitz Group 7 questions about the event which we present to you in this post. Enjoy!

7 Questions with Debbie Qaqish:

1) What was the impetus behind bringing REVTalks to market? Why Now?

In the early part of 2012, I was knee deep in writing Rise of the Revenue Marketer. The impetus for the book was always to highlight and share how executives were leading the transformation of marketing from a cost center to a revenue center. As I interviewed 23 marketing executives on their experiences on the Revenue Marketing Journey two things became clear: 1) the key themes for success expressed by these executives had little to do with technology and everything to do with change management and 2) there is a huge gap in access to education, models, and other executive experiences for the executive responsible for leading this change.

So while we had thought about doing our own conference based on Revenue Marketing for a few years, the book just showed us very clearly what our conference should be about – one executive sharing with another executive his/her “aha” moments as they transformed their marketing group from a cost center to a revenue center.

And the timing is perfect as the pressure for the CMO to have financial/revenue accountability continues to increase, almost exponentially.

2) How did you determine date, location, format and speakers?

We wanted to do it early in the year so marketing executives could access the best practitioners and thought leaders in the space to help them prepare for 2014.

We chose San Francisco, CA as the location for our inaugural REVTalks because it is the nexus for a lot of Revenue Marketing thought leadership and practice.

Given our experience in the executive interviews for the book, we knew that every executive had some kind of defining moment (or several defining moments) that made the difference between success and a slow death. These moments emerged naturally as part of the dialog in all the interviews. I could literally hear the excitement in their voices as they talked about this one area. Given this focus and given how these executives are really architects of innovation, we thought the TED Talks style would work best. So, each REVTalk is “an idea worth sharing” in a 15-minute format.

The speakers were specifically selected on their success and leadership in the Revenue Marketing space and each REVTalk speaker is carefully vetted to ensure it imparts a high-value “aha” moment for the audience.

Each REVTalk is being uniquely crafted for this event and the level of creativity is through the roof! All I can tell you is melons, red flags, rubber bands, China, chameleons, and Reeses, are just a few of the analogies/props that will be shared to impart the “Aha” moments. You can see a list of speakers and their topic titles at RevenueMarketingSummit.com.

4) Who is your target audience?

Sales and marketing executives, CMOs, VP Sales, VP Marketing, and Directors. It also may not be a bad idea to bring your CEO!

5) What makes this event unique and one to attend?

The executive-level dialog on how to lead this change

36 AMAZING “Aha” moments in Revenue Marketing shared by leaders and practitioners in this space

Access to 399 other executives in the same boat as you with their own experiences to share.

If you have any revenue responsibility in 2014 or feel like it is coming, this is THE event to attend.

6) What is the long-term vision for the event?

The Pedowitz Group has already started the executive-level dialog on how to lead this change. We launched Revenue Marketing University a year ago for this exact dialog. We anticipate REVTalks to be an annual event that will continue to focus on innovation and leadership required to create a new role for marketing in today’sB2B landscape. We also see the dialog continuing between attendees and believe this dialog will help the space mature.

7) What is the one-two takeaways you want every marketer to go implement right away?

Revenue Marketing is a Journey and it takes time.

Winners drive for planned, Quick Wins along the way.

Change management and stakeholder alignment are fundamental to a successful journal and cannot be overemphasized.